SAMBHU NATH GHOSAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner says that he is a paddy cultivator, owns about 63 bighas of paddy land and the average produce from his land varies from 500 maunds to 450 maunds (186.62 Quintals to 168 Quintals) of paddy. He is the holder of a Large Producers' License, under the West Bengal Rice and Paddv Control Order, 1961.

(2.) The petitioner feels aggrieved by an order made by the respondent Additional District Magistrate calling upon him to sell a quantity of 109 Quintals of fine paddy, out of stock in his hands, to Messrs. Annapurna Rice Mill, at Kalna. The order reads as follows:

(3.) Mr. Nilmoni Goswami, learned Advocate for the petitioner, made an one-point attack against the order for sale of paddy. He argued that the power under Section 3(2)(f) of the Essential Commodities Act 1955, namely, the power "requiring any person holding in stock any essential commodity to sell the whole or a specified part of the stock to such person or class of persons and in such circumstances as may be specified in the order, "ordinarily exercisable by the Central Government, may be delegated by the Central Government, under Section 5 of the Act, to a State Government or to officers subordinate to a State Government. Such a delegation of authority, Mr. Goswami contended, was made by the Central Government, in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, on January 6, 1959, by G.S.R. 34, which reads as follows: